Friday, December 18, 2009

Yesterday, we went on a search for our gingerbread cookies. The gingerbread men left notes and clues all over the school. The last note told us that they would be back today. Sure enough, our study buddies found our cookies and brought them back today. Our study buddies also read a story to each student about what their gingerbread men had been up to the past 2 days. The students snacked on their cookies while they listened to the story.We also got a chance to do some painting today. We painted pink and purple polka dots on the letter P for our kindergarten scrapbook. Later in the day, we celebrated a friend's half birthday. She brought some delicious cupcakes to share with us.

I hope everyone has a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

A study buddy reading to J about what her gingerbread man had been doing for the past 2 daysPainting pink and purple polka dotsHappy 1/2 birthday A!The 1/2 birthday girl's group enjoying the cupcakes

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

This morning, we made gingerbread cookies. The students used a gingerbread cookie cutter to cut them out. Then, they decorated their cookies with mini M&Ms and sprinkles. At lunch time, I baked the cookies and we saved them for the end of the day. Then, we read the story, "The Gingerbread Baby". Afterwords, we discussed all of the gingerbread stories we read. We decided to graph which gingerbread story was our favorite. Each student colored in a gingerbread man, and they taped it next to their favorite story. The classes' favorite story was "The Gingerbread Girl", with "The Gingerbread Cowboy" coming in a close second. Near the end of the day, the entire school went to the gym for the Christmas sing-a-long. Each grade went up to the stage and sang 2 Christmas songs. This was also the time when we gave all of the items we donated to the Rescue Mission. When the sing-a-long was over, we went back to our room to eat our gingerbread cookies. When we arrived in our room, we found a trail of M&Ms and sprinkles leading up to a note that read,

Dear Kindergarteners:Run! Run! As fast as you can. You can't catch us. We're the gingerbread men.Your Gingerbread FriendsP.S. We challenge you to find us tomorrow.

We couldn't believe that they were gone! Tomorrow, we will be going on a scavenger hunt and we will hopefully find them.

Cutting out the cookieDecorating the cookiesOne tray full of the gingerbread cookiesGingerbread graphAt the sing-a-long (Can you pick them out?)The trail of candy leading up to the note

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

We had a very big day today. I will share some of the highlights of the day. In the morning, the students went to the gym and watched some neat, science experiments. I'm sure you heard all about them. Then, we heard about "The Gingerbread Cowboy" after lunch. We also had a small holiday party today. I brought in some chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, and chocolate milk, and we watched the cartoon version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." We had already read the book. After the movie, we talked about what parts of the book were left out of the cartoon.

Lastly, we went to library and played the "No No Never Never" game. Mrs. Baker played music while they passed around a big box. When the music would stop, the student holding the box would pull out an object from the box. They had to tell Mrs. Baker whether that item was a good thing to use with books or not. For example, one student pulled out some play food. Of course, food is a "No No Never Never" around books. If the students answered correctly, they received a golden ticket. At the end of library, they got to exchange their golden ticket for a quarter to use in the candy machine.

Tomorrow, we will be ready to decorate and bake some gingerbread cookies!

Some of the students posing with their treats before the movieWatching the movie from the carpet (the rest of the students chose to watch from their tables)Passing the box aroundPeas are a "No No Never Never" near a bookA student getting candy from the candy machine (Yes, these machines do still exist)

Monday, December 14, 2009

Today we did some more gingerbread activities. I re-read "The Gingerbread Man", and I used a gingerbread puppet to tell the story. In the afternoon, I read the story, "The Gingerbread Boy." We discussed how this story was different from "The Gingerbread Girl." We also discussed all of the different people and animals that the gingerbread girl/boy ran away from. Then, we made our own gingerbread book. The students had to write who their gingerbread girl/boy was going to run away from. Then, they drew a picture of their gingerbread girl/boy running away from it. They did a wonderful job! They are improving so much on hearing and writing the sounds from a word on their own. Also, they are becoming quite the artists. I'm sharing a few pages from our class book. I wish I could share all of them. Our gingerbread book is now on our class bookshelf for them to read in reading center.

One friend illustrated the cover of the book for usHere are a few pages from the book - Aren't they great? :-)

Friday, December 11, 2009

We began our gingerbread unit today. We read "The Gingerbread Man" story in the morning. Then, in the afternoon we read, "The Gingerbread Girl." In fact, we will be reading many different kinds of gingerbread stories next week. Also, we will be doing lots of other fun gingerbread activities.Today, we made a gingerbread glyph. The questions from the glyph determined what materials you received to make your own gingerbread man. For example, one question asked: "What is your favorite type of cookie?" The answers you gave determined what color of gingerbread man you received. I have a copy of the glyph questions in a picture below.

Cutting out the gingerbread manMaking the belt on the gingerbread manHere they are with their finished gingerbread men or womenThe questions from the glyphA few of the gingerbread men displayed in the hallway

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Today one of our friends celebrated their half birthday. Since, he has a summer birthday, we decided to celebrate his half birthday. He brought some delicious Zebra Cakes to share with us for a snack. Today, we also had the opportunity to listen to the 4th and 5th grader's band concert. They played some great holiday music. In math, we played a game called, "Roll and Record." We have played it before but we used 2 dice this time. In the game, they roll the dice and color the square on the graph above the number they rolled. We played this game because we are still practicing counting, but we also played it because we're starting to work on addition. This helped them add two numbers together by counting both die. Tomorrow, we are looking forward to beginning our gingerbread unit.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Today we talked about why Christmas is special to them. We brainstormed lots of different reasons. Here were some of their responses: presents, family, friends, snow, Santa, candy canes, Christmas trees, and spending time with people. I also had the chance to take our class picture by the tree. Unfortunately, three students were absent today, but it's hard to get the whole class here during cold and flu season.